Judge suspends Apple/Nokia lawsuit pending ITC investigation

With all of the furor around the gigantic patent lawsuit that Apple dropped on HTC this week, you might be forgiven for forgetting about the first big patent smackdown of the year, the lawsuit that Nokia laid at Apple's door. But a judge in Delaware hasn't -- he ordered a suspension [Ed. note: link broken to original article and removed] to both the case and its countersuit while the International Trade Commission works out the complaints between the two companies.

Clearly Nokia and Apple have it out for one another, but apparently they're going to take it one step at a time. Once the ITC has completed its probe, which was scheduled to take 45 days after it agreed to perform the investigation on February 22nd, then the lawsuit will presumably move forward. That's if it's still on and not settled by then, although Nokia seems in it to win it, and Apple apparently has enough bandwidth (and legal fees) to pick two fights at once anyway. So bring it, ITC, and then let's get this show on the road.